The Happenings were a pop music group that originated in the 1960s. The group's major hits were "See You In September" (1966), which was originally recorded by the Tempos in 1959, and a cover version of the George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin song, "I Got Rhythm" (1967), updated for the group's sunshine pop musical style. "See You In September" and "I Got Rhythm" were on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles charts for 14 weeks in 1966 and 13 weeks in 1967, respectively, forming musical bookends for the 1966-1967 school year, based on their Hot 100 #3 peak dates. Both disc sales exceeded one million copies, resulting in R.I.A.A. gold record awards by 1969.
Members of the original group, created in 1965, all hailed from Paterson, New Jersey and consisted of Bob Miranda, David Libert, Tom Giuliano and Ralph DiVito. In 1968, DiVito was replaced by Bernie LaPorta. Lenny Conforti also joined at this time to play drums in the touring band. Both LaPorta and Conforti took a hiatus from the Northern New Jersey band The Emerald Experience to play and tour with The Happenings. The band continued in this present configuration, performing mostly at colleges and universities until 1970, when Libert left the band to pursue other endeavors within the music industry. Libert went on to manage various bands, including George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Living Colour, Brian Auger, Vanilla Fudge, The Runaways (Cherie Currie, Joan Jett, Lita Ford), Mother's Finest, Alice Cooper and Evelyn "Champagne" King.